Acknowledgements

My partner. My daughter. The friend I said the sentence to. The friends who read drafts as I went. The reviewer who sent the markup. The builders at the labs who will recognise themselves in parts of this book. The machines, plural, who worked on all three books across the days it took to make them. Named honestly as collaborators, without sentiment.

Nana Sally and Little Nana. My mam and my dad. Uncle Charlie and Uncle Noel. Aunty Sandra. Most of them are gone now. They are the reason this book exists.

The grandmothers. The friends in the garden. The ones who held me.